Customer Reviews

Prelude to Greatness: Sooner Football in the 1990's

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"Prelude to Greatness" finally tells the inside story of the mess that was Oklahoma football under head coaches Howard Schnellenberger and John Blake. Coach Blake's regime gets a surprisingly favorable review, while Smith puts the overwhelming share of the blame for OU's decline on Schnellenberger's shoulders.

Those dark days, however, are behind us and I particularly enjoyed reading about the winning coaching style of current head coach Bob Stoops and his staff. Smith tells how an unfocused and unmotivated program filled with individuals is transformed into one unit, working to a common purpose and the book's most valuable lesson, for fans, students, businessmen or would-be athletes, is to be found here.

The last chapter is written specifically for high school students considering an athletic career at the major college level, and Smith outlines the sacrifices that must be made to both play sports and succeed in the classroom. While football hindered his academic efforts, Smith is still solidly in favor of big-time athletics for the right student-athletes. Sports minded youth should be encouraged to read this important book.

Great read! Tremendous insight into college football from a players perspective. A must for any Sooner fan and for all high school football players considering playing for any NCAA Division IA football program. This is a book that will be discussed on the sports talk shows for some time to come, particularly if the Sooners continue at #1 in the college football rankings.

Contrary to what some of the reviewers have said about this book I found it interesting, informative and pretty much along the lines of what others were saying about the OU program during the time Jay Smith was part of the football team. I didn't see where he dwelt on himself nor did he blame anyone for his less than stellar career. Injuries and upheaval scuttled his high school dreams. This was, as he stated in the beginning, a diary . . . edited, of course, or six years would have taken up volumes. He seemed to be fair in his estimations of the four coaches he played under. Gibbs never had chance following Switzer, EVERYBODY knew Schnellenberger was a bad fit and never became a Sooner, Blake was a great guy whom everybody loved but he had neither experience or organizational skills to run a big time program. And I think we all knew when Stoops came that something magic was about to happen. Read the book and be reminded just how low the program had sunk. It makes our recent successes even more sweet. Thanks, Jay, I enjoyed the book.

This may be the biggest joke to college sports writing in history. The fact the book was published leaves me wondering about the whole industry. I know this guy personally from my years in college football and the problem with the book or any autobiography is the stories are told through the eyes of the writer. With Jay's case, as with most of us, he sees things COMPLETELY different than the rest of the world. He is so self indulged and disillusioned with his "football career" (I use that term loosely) he must write a book telling the lies he sees in his head. Jay Smith doesn't know the first thing about true college or team sports, so what qualifies him to write a book to influence others about his lies. If this book is read by a true Sooner fan, or someone who knows Jay, or even someone has the slightest clue about football, they will laugh at the audacity of his arrogance. In fact, save your money, save your time, and don't contribute to his or the publishing company that produced this disgrace of a book. If he truely wanted a book about the dark years of Sooner football, why didn't he acquire and use quotes from the various coaches, strength and conditioning staff, and athletic department? I will tell you why, they would not have anything to do with Jay, because his impact in the Sooner nation was less than the Watergirls. Yet another embarrasment to Oklahoma Football.

I have been around football my entire life, being that my dad is a coach, and has been for 18 years. I was amazed to read the perspective of this player who did not live up to "his" potential. He sounds like a bitter young man. Obviously he had more confidence in himself, than coaches who have been in the game for much longer than he has even been alive. Sometimes players don't understand the processing that coaches go through to put together a game plan, and then to carry it out. Yes, it is unfortunate that he had to have four coaches throughout his career, but at least he had the oppurtunity to play the game. There are many other young men who would have loved to at least get to play at the University of Oklahoma, or anywere else. So sometimes people should be greatful for their oppurtunities.